Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Partnership for 21st Century Skills or P21 is a website that can be located at the following url, http://www.p21.org/ . This is a website devoted to bringing together the core standards and 21st Century skills for our students. This project is made up of members from the business community as well as educational leaders and policymakers. The site offers many resources and publications for implementing the development of 21st Century skills into the classroom.
I was a bit overwhelmed with the website initially. It took me a while to navigate through the site to find all that it had to offer. The site is very thought provoking. It requires you to think, as an educator, about what skills we really need to be teaching our students and what a student who is going to be productive in the 21st Century must be able to do.
My first thought when I heard 21st Century skills was technology skills. I was surprised when I seen the list of skills this project was referring to. There are many skills listed that students need to possess to be productive in the 21st Century. The skills are; critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, information and technology literate, flexible and adaptable, innovative and creative, globally competent, and environmentally literate.
These are not skills that are going to be taught by using a text book and worksheets. Students are going to have to have authentic assessments given and be allowed to learn through project based units to gain these skills. Students are going to have to become more active learners as well if they are going to gain these skills.